Can an average person really create Zero Waste? The challenge was set and during the week 10-17 March 2008, one mother in Bury St Edmunds gave it a go. She only threw out a plaster. Can you do it too? Why not try your own Rubbish Diet and slim your bin. You'll be amazed at how easy it really is and you could even save some money. If Almost Mrs Average can do it, you can too.

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Monday, 11 February 2008

Thank you to Kate Mcfarland of St Edmundsbury Council for the prompt response to my request for a little pink hook. It arrived this morning, with the blue bin collection.

Dare I admit that I've had Pink Hook envy whilst walking around Moreton Hall and seeing lots of household bins with this groovy looking accessory. I'm now wondering whether you've guessed what it is yet. It took me a little while.

To save you from any form of mental torment, I can reveal that the pink hook is for battery recycling and comes complete with a little bag into which you put your old batteries. Hang it on the hook and "Bob's your uncle"... the binmen will then take them off to be recycled into new batteries or other products.

After receiving funding from WRAP, St Edmundsbury is the first council in Europe to trial kerbside battery recycling collection. The results of the trial will help decide the best methods of collecting and recycling batteries across the UK, which is great when you consider that 600 million batteries are thrown away every year. That must mean a hell of a lot of remote controls and toys across the land.

I'd love to know what products the batteries are turned into. If anyone out there has any ideas, please drop me a line.

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comments:

Another one of those ideas that seems so simple, you wonder why it hasn't been done before!

I'd like to see them combine it with incentives to use rechargeable batteries, though. Maybe the binmen could put the equivalent number of rechargeables in your bag for you to use, when you throw out normal batteries?

I used to save my batteries up till we had a trip to Holland and then pass them all to my mum so she could recycle them - recycling facilities in most supermarkets. We had two free bags with the pink hook, the first time I filled both bags and got one back, the second time I filled the bag they took it and didn't give it back! I haven't got any at the moment but if I do, I'm just going to hang a, gasp, plastic bag on the hook...

Thanks Baba - Blogger's not great at showing the complete link, but if you highlight the link and the blank line below, you can copy and paste it as normal. All the same, I'll add it into onto the post, just in case it doesn't work.

Hi Cybele - wow that's great commitment to recycling. That's fab...LOL at the plastic bag on the pink hook, recycling as it was meant to be.

The G&P is the company who are reprocessing the batteries from the WRAP trials and they go off to Sheffield. When there, 100% of it is separated in to their different components and recycled - even the plastic label. The black mass can be made in to such things as jet engines, and an important element in paint.The EU directive on batteries hopefully will see more recycling facilities for battery recycling from Sept onwards, so there will be more recycling facilities for batteries across the UK (Household Waste Recycling Centres in Suffolk already accept batteries for recycling).Hope this helps.

Wow that's one hell of a lot of recycling going on there, so thanks to Waste Woman for sharing.

Perhaps it's time to let you all into a secret. I've always hated the thought of throwing batteries into the bin and tend to have them hanging around in a drawer, even old ones that have been depleted of the faintest trace of energy. The problem is that they've got mixed in with new batteries. Of course, the issue we now have to face is trying to test them all out so we can now use the most excellent bags that go on the little pink hook. However - it's great to see that they are going to such good use and it's worth the effort.

I'm nearly as pleased although our council aren't giving out pretty pink hooks. Yesterday I did receive a supply of small plastic bags in which to collect used batteries, which can be put in with the recycling when full. As we mostly use recharchable batteries it may take us a while to fill, but I'm glad I don't have to put any batteries in the bin now.

This is verrry nice! I am not only going to tell you what you want to hear, but I am also going to tell you the truth! This honestly is really beautiful. To some people even the smallest things can mean the most to them. Sometimes they also say one mans trash is another mans treasure, funny how that works. But this right here, is most definitely a piece of treasure that should be kept in a safe place so it doesn't end up in the trash. But no worries, even if it does end up in the trash, it will Most Definitely be another persons treasure because anyone and everyone can find all kinds of their own definition of beauty in here :)

...or check out the video of our zero waste home

@ THE STARTING POINT

This family used to create an average of two to three 50 litre bags of LANDFILL WASTE in a two week period. Through assessing and changing everyday habits, this was reduced heavily in time forZero Waste Week, which ended on 17th March 2008, when the only thing we threw out to landfill was a sticking plaster.

@ GUARDIAN UNLIMITED ON WASTE

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